(A CHRISTMAS SHORT STORY )
Once upon a time in a big red brick house on 22 Carson Lane, the snow was falling gently on the ground outside.
It was Christmas Eve and a boy named Max was writing a letter to Santa.
Max’s cousins Stevie and Jordan were downstairs watching a movie on their tablets.
Suddenly the two girls ran up the stairs and burst into into Max’s room. Stevie yanked Max's letter out of his hand and started reading it.
After they read the letter out loud, they told Max that Santa wasn't real.
Max got mad at them and then started to cry. Stevie and Jordan ran out of the room laughing.
Max decided that he hated Christmas, and he tore up his letter to Santa. He opened up his bedroom window and threw all the pieces out into the dark snowy night.
Little did Max know that by tearing up his letter he awoke the Demon of Christmas.
All of a sudden the wind picked up and a storm begun to brew. Then the power in the house went out and everything went dark.
Max’s grandmother lit candles and placed them around the house. Max’s dad added more logs onto the fire that was already burning bright in the fireplace.
A knock on the front door startled the family and Max came downstairs to see who it was.
Max’s mother ran over and opened the door.
On the doorstep was a large red mystery bag and in the background on the front lawn was a sinister looking snowman. The mother picked up the bag and brought it in . Forgetting about the snowman she closed the door.
The whole family gathered around the dining room table. Max asked, “Who is it from, and what do you think is in the bag”? The mother said to Max, “Why don’t you open it?
Max opened the bag and inside he pulled out some creepy looking toys. The family thought it was quite odd to have a bag of toys delivered to their home in a snowstorm.
Maybe the bag was sent to the wrong house Max thought. The toys were placed around the Christmas tree and all was forgotten for the time being.
Suddenly, a large bang was heard on the roof above and then footsteps walking up and down.
Everyone was scared.
It went really quiet. Suddenly a noise was heard coming down the chimney.
Out popped a rusty bell from the embers with a red nylon thread tied to it. The words " Greeting's From Krampus" in German was engraved on the side of it.
The grandmother gasped in fear.
She sat everyone down in the living room by the heat of fire and told her story about when she was a little girl and if you did not believe in Santa or the magic of Christmas, Krampus would come and take your family away one by one leaving a bell as a reminder of his visit.
Max knew this was his entire fault. He had ripped up his letter to Santa and should have not stopped believing in Christmas no matter what he was told.
He quickly ran up the stairs to his room and opened the window.
He pleaded out into the snowy night sky to Krampus that he did now believe in the magic of Christmas and Santa, and that he was wrong.
Max did not want to lose his family.
He pulled up his chair to his desk, took the pen in his hand and began to write a new letter to Santa.
Just as he had finished signing "Love Max" The lights flickered and the electricity came back on.
The mother looked out the window and the sky was now clear and bright with stars shining. The snowman that was in the yard had disappeared.
All was well again on Christmas Eve in the big red brick house on 22 Carson Lane.
